the first time to plan a programme of squatter clearance. At first this programme was confined to providing sites for further resettlement blocks and to the clearance of urgently needed fire lanes in the more densely populated squatter areas. By the middle of 1955 however sufficient progress had been made for the department to concentrate on the most important of its functions the clearance of land for the various forms of development required by a rapidly expanding com- munity, that is for housing, schools, factories and for such public works as roads, drains and water supply systems.
11. Land cannot however be freed of large numbers of squatters until alternative accommodation can be provided and it was clear that the construction of multi-storey resettlement estates was the only prac tical method of providing this accommodation on the scale needed. It was also clear that the very large number of sites required for the Colony's expansion, nearly all of which were occupied by squatters, meant that the development of resettlement estates would have to con- tinue at maximum speed for a number of years to come.
12. This commitment has been accepted. The first three estates have been followed by new estates at Hung Hom, Lo Fu Ngam, Wong Tai Sin and Chai Wan and a redevelopment scheme is gradually replacing the emergency Bowring Bungalows at Shek Kip Mei by new multi- storey blocks. By the end of March 1959, 350 acres of land had been cleared of squatters and used for permanent development, of which 131 acres were for the construction of resettlement estates,
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF THE YEAR
13. On 1st April, 1959 there were altogether 278,598 persons living in resettlement accommodation: 196,958 in the seven multi-storey estates and Bowring Bungalows, and 81,640 in the fourteen cottage areas. At the end of the year this population had increased by 50,705 to 329,303, of whom 39,886 were squatters cleared and resettled and 8,232 represented the excess of births over deaths in the estates and cottage areas. Of the squatters, 5,568 persons were victims of fires or other disasters in previous years who had been given sites for temporary huts in the streets, while the remainder were cleared from sites that were required for permanent development. In addition 4,931 settlers in Chai Wan, Tung Tau and Tai Hang Sai Resettlement Areas were transferred to other accommodation as the sites of their huts and
4
Page 10Page 11